Monday, January 14, 2013

It’s been a stretch of unusually cold
weather here in sunny California inspiring the Twitter hashtag #coldinLA for the past week, but last
night’s female hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought some much needed warmth
to our fair city with their razor sharp wit and saccharine sweet smiles.

It was clearly ladies night at the 70th
Annual Golden Globe Awards with these two beauties knockin’ em out of the park prompting
laugh out loud moments one after the other, with only a couple of jabs that
solicited gasps from the audience. Truly
hysterical with a deadpan delivery, this dynamic duo sure knows how to party
and make an otherwise monotonous ceremony seem totally fun.

The opening sequence included many one
liners that will go down in history. One
of my personal favorites was the joke referencing “The Hunger Games” and the
many months of dieting that was required to fit into their formal dresses,
followed by the “Life of Pi” which was what they admitted they would be eating
to reward themselves in the months following.
My other favorite, that had the audience rolling, was the omnipresent Meryl
Streep, who was unfortunately unable to attend due to the flu, but they “heard
she was amazing in it” poking fun at her award honors for always sweeping in
her category. When Lena Dunham won for Best
Actress in a Comedy (their category) and then proceeded to innocently reference her age
difference, they were not deterred.Instead they came back with a vengeance as two drunken sages, who may be
losers, but who will never let age get the best of them.These two ladies have honed their skills and
earned their hosting stripes.They’ve come
a long way since their sketch days on Saturday Night Live and they are reaping
the rewards of their success.

As for the rest of the evening, it was
a mixture of highs and lows. In fashion,
it was either a major hit or a massive mistake.
Noticeably missing was the lack of material covering a number of body
parts. Goose bumps were the popular
accessory. Hair in elegant Veronica Lake side swoops and swept up-do’s were the most eye-catching. The presenters and acceptance speeches had their
fair share of hits and misses as well ranging from the uncommonly funny, to the
dead serious, to the just plain weird. Here’s
what stood out for us in our red carpet manners commentary at this year’s Golden
Globes.

Tattoos,
Cleavage & Bare Midriff’s, Oh My!
The arrivals on the red carpet were a spectacle as always. The surprising colors that reigned were a
formal and sometimes shiny black, various shades of striking red, a sprinkling
of pure snow colored white, rich burgundy, and some subdued nudes. More apparent this year for us, was the
amount of skin or tattooed skin that we noticed. We were concerned all night that Amy Poehler,
Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Hudson, Claire Danes and Katharine
McPhee’s, daring décolletage, whether it
was frontal or on the side, would dip into a wardrobe malfunction nightmare. One raucous raise of the arms and the puppies
were out! Hale Berry and Kirsten Wiig both
dressed like they were going to an outdoor summer affair flaunting their bare
midriffs even in the dead of winter! Lena Dunham and Kelly Osborne seemed to
enjoy the extra attention their body art attracted or, in my opinion, detracted
from their voluptuous bodices. My favorite look of the evening was an
exceptionally exquisite and lanky Taylor Swift. Jessica Alba should also receive top honors for a flawless look from head to toe.

Slits
in the Skirt or Skirting the Issue.
We don’t want to raise a red flag here and all of these ladies are quite
lovely, but we’re seeing a trend where the more leg you show, the less tangible
your career. Are these gals trying to
keep themselves current around the water cooler? We haven’t heard much about Eva Longoria
since the days of “Desperate”, Halle Berry was in the press over the holidays,
but not for anything pleasant and Lea Michelle’s “Glee” has been slowly losing
steam with each year that passes.

Award
Worthy Acceptances. Jessica Chastain executed a perfect thank you
for the encouragement and support she has received in her long, but steady career. She is an incredibly
talented and daring actress who willingly acknowledges those who have helped
her along the way including her grandmother who always encouraged her to
believe in her dreams. Daniel Day Lewis dispensed a fluent, flawless speech that
is expected from this caliber of an actor. A very gracious, Executive Producer Alex Gansa, gave a heartfelt speech admitting
how hard it was to follow such a successful first season of “Homeland” and made a point of thanking the actors whose
characters were “sacrificed on the altar” this season.

Unrehearsed
Speech. The most
surprisingly humorous speech came from a very unlikely source, the HFPA’s, Aida
Takla-O’Reilly. This is typically the time to head for a
bathroom break, but this two-year term President was going to have the last
laugh and instead gave us a nice jolt in our seats with one of the funniest,
unscripted speeches of the night. She
began her goodbyes with a request to scan the room of celebs which fell flat
when the producers did not oblige, but then proceeded to launch into some very
clever commentary that mentioned how Jeffrey
Katzenberg, producer and CEO of Dreamworks Animation, “will never forget her name
because he never knew it in the first place,” and then ended
with a “Call Me Maybe” shout out to hunk Bradley Cooper which garnered some very
hearty laughs from the audience.

Squirm
in Your Seat Moment.
We weren’t exactly sure why Jodie Foster had garnered this year’s Cecil B.
DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, after all she is a young fifty years as she
made it well known to the audience. Yes,
she looked beautiful, was impeccably coiffed and dressed, but I felt sad for
her nonetheless. The speech was entirely
too long. It made me uncomfortable. I had no idea where she was going with that
setup to reveal something big and then was let down just the same when she made
a pitch for her single status. Her career
is definitely noteworthy and deserves accolades, but instead we were left with the
heartbreaking admission that she doesn’t want to go into the future alone. The whole thing sounded like a premature swansong.

Unfinished
Business. We appreciated the great attention paid to
the all-important thank you’s this year.
It seems that everyone was careful to make sure they did not omit anyone
on their team. Ben Affleck who was obviously nervous accepting his unexpected win for "Argo," started the
trend when he asked his wife, Jennifer Garner, to give kudos to his producing
partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov. I mean how can you forget to thank
George? Anne Hathaway followed suit when
Les Miserables won its top notch for Best Musical and she snuck in a an extra
thanks that she had forgotten previously. Lena Dunham also got into the action thanking Chad Lowe, which was a promise she made way back when if she ever got
the chance. Remember Hilary Swank who
forgot to thank her husband? Ouch, the
writing was on the wall with that one!

How
to Walk in High Heels – Cheers to Lena Dunham for raking in the awards
at this year’s ceremony! I have to
confess that I detested “Girls” at first, probably because I have two young
daughters and was scared $#!%less at what might befall them once they leave the
roost. Now I am more forgiving and can see the beauty in the craft. I just have one word of red carpet advice. Practice walking in high heels at home before
the Emmy’s later this year. Lena’s seat
halfway back in the ballroom didn’t help matters as she proceeded to walk towards
the stage in what appeared to be a mile long stretch in which she was teetering
on the verge of falling.

All in all, we give the show a thumbs up. Love the fact that we can watch it live on the West Coast and be in bed nice and early on a Sunday night!! See you next time at the Oscars...

What did you think of this year’s
ceremony? Did we leave anything
out? Any other red carpet commentary
that we missed? Please share with
us. We’d love to hear from you.